Thread by @smarterscout

🚨 TRANSFER ALERT 🚨

Norwich have signed forward Milot Rashica ("hra-SHEET-sa") from Werder Bremen for €11m. We've been following him since 2015 – and he hasn't been as productive lately as he was in 2018-19. Let's find out why not.

Stats at a Premier League standard:

1/x

As you can see above, Rashica has played mainly as a striker for Werder Bremen, with great skill in 1v1s but declining attacking output. His style hasn't changed much, but his passing has gotten less aggressive and his dribbling has declined a little bit:

2/x

The share of Rashica's ball progression contributions from receiving doubled since 2018-19, while the share from passing is about the same. The remainder is his individual actions – so he's not taking the ball forward and winning as many duels as he used to:

3/x

How much of the change in Rashica's output has come from positioning? Let's compare his smartermaps. In 2018-19 most of his touches were in the attacking half, and he worked more on the flank. In 2020-21 he had to play deeper and bring the ball out as Werder struggled.

4/x

So Rashica was attempting the same mix of actions but in different positions, much a result of his team being on the back foot a lot. Could the same thing happen at Norwich, if they have a rough campaign in the Premier League again? Here's what happened with Emi Buendía:

5/x

Again, on the smartermaps you can see how Buendía was pushed further back in the Premier League than in the EFL Championship. So Rashica may find himself restrained depending on how the other guys in Norwich's squad perform. But he's always been an exciting talent, so 👀.

6/6

P.S. The Premier League hasn't seen a player quite like Rashica in quite a while. Forwards with similar styles include Wahbi Khazri and Naïm Sliti... looking to score or assist in equal measure, lots of dribbling, aggressive defending. Rashica isn't a 1-for-1 Buendía replacement!